Attachment for bending machines



Dec. 4, 1928.

R. L. HERMAN ET AL ATTACHMENT FOR BENDING MACHINES Filed Oct. 28, 1927 BAN Patented Dec. 4, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT: OFFICE;

, RAYMOND L. nnnmamor new YORK, AND GUSTAV F. somarnr, or Ros'LYN, NEW YORK.

ATTACHMENT on BENDING MACHINES.

Application filed October 28, 1927. Serial no; 229,348.

. This invent-ion relates to bending machines of the type employed for the cold bending of structural steel or iron pieces such as angle, channel orI beams and has for its principal 5 objectto provide a new and improved construction of a device, which may either be in the nature of an attachment capable ofbeing associated with existing machines'or may be incorporated with the bending machine in 1 the initial construction thereof, and by means of which channel iron or I beams may be bent in a manner not heretofore possible by such machine. V

For the purpose of illustrating the nature of the present invention it has been shown as associated with a bending machine of the type in which three relatively large hardened steel rolls are mounted upon a suitable base in what may be termed a triangular arrange- 2 ment with their axes extending vertically,

two of said rolls being power driven and Y10- cated at the ends of the base of the triangle while the third roll is an idler and has its'axis located upon the line which bisects the base and therefore is equidistant from the two power driven rolls; p

While bending machines of the above described type are capable ofproducing excellent results in thebending of many different types of structural steel or iron they are however limited in their application. For example, while the machines will bend channel or I beams to form rings or segments, they-can bend such beams to form curves only wherein the axis ofthe'radius of the curvature extends parallel to the'web of the beam but can not successfully bend curvesv wherein the axis of the radius of curvature extends perpendicular to the web.

The object of the present invention is to provide a device which willenable curves of the latter type to be bent as readily in the machines as curves of the'for'mer type.

The above andfotherobjects of the inven'-. tion will appear mercifully from the following more detailed description and by reference to the accompanying drawings form-' ing a part hereof and wherein Fig. 1 is a plan view indicating diagrammatically the rollers of a bending machine of thetype hereinbefore referred to and the application to such a machine of an attachment constructed in accordancewith the'principles of the in vention; Flg. 2 1s an enlarged side elevationv of the attachment, part thereofbelng shown and Fig. 5 isa View similarto Figg3'of referred to, 'the rolls 11 and 12being'rotate d*- j by any suitablemeans and being locatedin," fixed spaced relationship; The roll 12 is an? idler roll and in accordance with the usual, constructions of] such machines, said roll is ,7 adjustable to and from the rolls 10,11-along a line which extends perpendicular to a line 7 passing through the axes of the rolls 10, 11.,

The constructional details of the; means for driving the rollsv 10, 11 and the'means for adjusting the roll 12 are not shown inthe, drawing as such means are oldinthe art and moreover form no part of the present invention.; w In accordance with the present invention we provide any suitable block or bracket,such 7 as indicated by the reference numeral 13, and;

which is adapted to be secured, as by the bolts 14,.to the'bed plate of-fthebending machinef The bracket 13 is preferably located midway ft between :the rolls 1O and'll, and is provided with a dovetailed guideway 15in which isy slidably received a carriage 16'. The carriage: 16 has an 'upwardly'ext ending flange 16* to which is secured, as by the bolt 17 'aykne bracket 18, the knee bracket being made verti cally adjustable by the provision of an elon gated slot in its vertically extendingportion. L

The horizontally extendingportion ofithep bracket 18 is also pro-vided'withan elongatedx195 3 slot 19inwhi'ch received a flanged bearing 20 having a non-circular periphery whichzengages slidably but non-rotatably within the.

. slot 19. Suitably secured to the bearing 20, 5

for example by a pin21, isa stud 22prefer'- *1 ably made integral with a carrier 23 the carri'er thus being held, by the pin- 21 and noncircular bearing 19,'against rotation, Rotatably mounted'in suitable recesses 2-1'formed at diametrically opposite points of the carrier- V are a pair of hardened steel rollers 25 which" preferably rest upon balls 26.. The rollers 25 are held within their respectiverecesses by a washer 27 confined between the top'of the carrier 23 and the bottom or the bearingI20. 1 1

Intead of employing. rollers, any suitable anti-friction devices such as the balls 28 shown in Fig. .5 may be used.

The manner in which the device is used is as follows:

If it is desired to bend a length of channel iron 30 in a curve the axisof whoseradius of curvature extends at right angles'to the web of the iron, the block 13is bolted to the base of the machine in theposition shown in Fi g.

. 1. The carriage 16 andknee bracketl-S are thenadjusted according to the dimensions of the channel iron to be bent and acarrier 23 and rollers25 are selected which will fit neatly betweenthe flanges of the channel iron as indicated in Fig. 2. :The iron is then placed between the rolls 10, 11, 12 withits flanges extending upwardly and spanning, the carrier and rollers 25. The bending machine is then started to cause the power driven rolls to draw the iron throughthe machine and as the bending operation proceeds the roller 12 is movedinwardly to produce the required pressure for forming a bend 'ofthe desired curvature.

versed to draw theiron back and forth be- 7 tween them and the'roll 12.

. outer walls of said iron.

3 ing of the surface skin of the iron.

It will be noted that the axes of rotation of rollers 25, and also the balls28, are located in the same plane as the axis of the roll 12 and that the periphery of each of said rollers, or each set of balls 12, contacts along vertical lines with the inner wall of the flangeof the channel iron with which they are in engagementto form a pair of rotary "reaction sup- I. port-s, the'lines of contact ofwhieh wlth the I flanges of the iron are loeated in substantial alignment with the contacting surface area between the periphery of the: roll 12 andthe The pressure exerted by the roll 12 upon the flange with which it contacts is therefore transmitted through the said flangetothe rollers 25 (or balls 28), and carrier 23 and to the opposite flange. During the bending operation the roller 25 nearest to the roll 12 will always rotate oppositely to the latter, thus producing a rolling action on opposite sides ofthe-flange at the inner side of the curve in thedirection in wh chthe lron 1s at any t me in movement and consequently there is no scoring or goug- The same is also true of the rotation of the other roller 25 relatively to the rolls 1'0 and 11. As the rotation of the rollers 25 are opposite in direction no torque is'exerted on the carrier 23 and consequently the small pin21 is suflicient to hold the carrier in a position in which the axes of the rollers are maintained in the same plane as the axes ofthe roll 12. VVe' have found in practice thatit is not necessary to extend the rollers25 to the bases of the flanges,

as apparently the presence of the mass of Inaterial in theweb of the iron serves to prevent It "will be understood that the direction of rotation of the rollslO, 11 is periodically re- "plane as the axis of one of the rolls of saiddistortion of theflanges adjacentto said web. The construction of the bending machines of the. prior art such as have been hereinbefore described and particularly ot; the roll type, can not be'employed for bending channel or I beams wherein the axis of the radius of curvature ot-the bend extends perpendicu- I lar to the web of the beam'because of the fact that when it is desired to makesuch abend the side flanges of a channel 1ron,for example, are

subjected to pressure upon their outer sidesonly, and as there is nothing to support-tl'iese flanges on their inner sides-the result is, when it is attempted to produce a bend of the type described that the side walls are crushed or bent inwardly thereof in efiect collapsing the beam and distorting it to such an extent that I it is entirely useless.

With thepresent invention a very tial bracing structure is provided between the inner walls of the flangesso that the pressure exerted by the middle one of the three rolls of the bending machine isin efi'ect distributed through our devicetoboth flanges and distortion is absolutely prevented.

While wehave shown the invention in its preferred form as embodying rollin memflanges of'the-structural beam, it will be un derstood that theuse of such rolling members is not absolutely essential but that a rigid member could be employed as long as the principle of maintaining substantially a line contact between the reaction support and in- 1 ner walls of the flanges is adheredto.

details of the construetionalexample selected for the purpose of illustration but that many changes, variationsand modifications of such bers which contact with the inner wal s of the i It will beunderstood that the principles of the invention are not limited to the specific details may be resorted to withoutdeparting from'the spirit ofthe invention.

We claim: 2

1. The combination with afibending machine having a plurality of bending rolls;'of

a reaction support including a plurality of rolling members adapted to fit neatly between and to contact with theinncr walls of a pair as the latter'is subjected to a bending operaof spaced flanges of apiece of structural iron Y tion inlsaid machine, said'rolling members w contacting with said flanges along lines op- .posite to the contacting areaoftheperiphery ofoneof said rolls with saidpiece and the y bending machine.

3. The combination with a bending inaclnnehaving a. plurality of bending rolls of areaction support including a. plurality of rolling members adapted to fit neatly between and to contact with the inner walls of a pair of spaced flanges of a piece of structural iron as the latter is subjected to a bending;

operation in said machines said rolling members contacting with said flanges along lines opposite tothe contacting area of the periphery of one of said rolls with said piece and the'axes ofsaid one roll and rolling members chine having a plurality of; bending rolls, of a reaction support adapted to fit neatly between, and to contact with, the inner walls of the spaced flanges of a piece of structural iron as the latter is subjected to a bending op eration in said machine, said reaction support being constructed and arranged to contact with each flange'with substantially aline contact, and said contact lines beingv located opposite to the contacting area of the pe riphery of one 01 said bending rolls with said piece, and theaxis of said one roll and said contact lines being located in the samevplane.

In testimony whereof we havehereunto set our hands.

RAYMOND L, HERMAN; GUSTAV F. SCHMIDT 

